Hello. My name is Vann. I run a camp/retreat center in the small jungle town of Pucallpa, Peru. We decided to put in a pool as our guests had been swimming in the lake and pond on the property with al kinds of jungle dangers. No one here has modern pool building experience, and as an avid DIY guy, I decided it couldn't be that hard, right? We decided on a 25x40 rectangle with a 9ft deep end and a 3ft shallow end with a cutout semicircle entry stair and a deep end swim out. We took around a month digging it as the rains kept coming - we are in the rain forest. we poured the bottom slab first and then spent almost another month cleaning up as the rains eroded the solid clay sides into the floor. Local Native Shipibo indians and I had to bucket out the entire thing four times. We finally got the forms up and walls poured though somewhat deformed. We poured a 10ft deck around the whole thing and put coping bricks on and the waterline tile. I studied a lot and decided to attempt pebble finish. I have just completed 2 weeks of grueling work putting the stonescapes pebble finish on. I have a lot of cold joints, but hopefully I will be able to polish most of them down. I think it will take around a week more to polish the entire pool, and then I will be able to fill it and start it up. I have a Pentair variflow pump with 2 pentair sta-rite cartridge filters and a Autopilot digital salt unit. I need some advise on starting the pool. How much salt do I need? I have no access to a pool store. All that I have, I ordered from the US. I have access to table salt with iodine, and perhaps livestock salt with no/less iodine. I can get some cyan uric acid from a store in Lima, but it only comes in 700gr amounts. Should I start by dumping salt in right away? Should I add chlorine? Should i try to find pool chlorine, or can I use bleach? I ordered a Taylor test kit, but it got stopped in customs, so it looks like I'll have to find some other test kits in the capitol. I have many questions. Can you guys help? Thanks in advance.
~Vann
~Vann